New York Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz filed a brief in U.S. District Court in Utica asking for the Interstate Commerce Commission to restore the famed Phoebe Snow line, of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, to service and the return of passenger service between Port Jervis and Binghamton, New York.
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Joseph Watley was heading to his home in Connecticut when a Pennsylvania state trooper pulled him over near the Blooming Grove exit on Interstate 84 in Pike County for allegedly driving 48 mph in a 65 mph zone.
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Editor: In response to a letter writer (Your Opinion, “Secret Strategy to Rescue City,” Aug. 10) who referred to Scranton firefighters “realigning their hoses,” each time I drive up Ash Street, I show my kids where Scranton Fire Capt. James Robeson lost his life while on duty in January 2008.

When I drive down Capouse Avenue, I show them where their father fell through a second-floor porch but was lucky to walk away.

I show them the bar where the ceiling came within inches of collapsing on him and his firefighter brothers.

I could continue. Yes, firefighters have downtime, but people should not write about subjects of which they know so little.

Editor: In 1883, poet Emma Lazarus wrote a powerful sonnet, “The New Colossus,” dedicating it to the Statue of Liberty, soon to be assembled on an island in upper New York Bay.

Since 1886, the Statue of Liberty has stood facing the narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island, welcoming newcomers to our shores. Six lines from “The New Colossus” were cast on a bronze plaque in 1903 and placed at the entrance to Lady Liberty’s pedestal.

Unfortunately, a very different welcome awaits young immigrants today as they cross the Rio Grande into Texas.

Fleeing poverty and violence in Central America, they meet an enormous colossus at our southern border, one crafted not of iron and copper, but of prejudice and fear.

Some Americans don’t want these Hispanic refugees here and they don’t care about the horrific conditions back home that drive them to come.

One congressman piously intoned that we must send these children back to their native countries and reunite them with their families. Nonsense.

How can we coldly return these kids to the hell they’ve risked life and limb to escape? The families of many of these children allegedly have been destroyed by gangs of narcotics traffickers. These kids, to cite “The New Colossus,” are the homeless, the tempest-tossed, the wretched refuse, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Surely, we can find places for them to live and grow here among us. We would certainly want someone to do as much for our children if they were homeless strangers in a strange land.

JOHN HUDANISH

CARBONDALE

Border engagement

Editor: Our Declaration of Independence contains the phrase “consent of the governed.”

There are allegations of lawlessness at the southwestern border, but the American people are shut out of the debate by our elected officials. Whether it is Republicans’ passion for cheap labor or Democrats recruiting new voters, are we not a sovereign nation?

Border protection is a national security issue. The illegals coming here are not all children. Why is this influx of illegals occurring?

President Barack Obama issued a memo in 2012 called “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” which allows for discretionary prosecution toward illegals. A government contract notice in January called for escort services to refugee shelters for unaccompanied alien children age 17 and younger in expectation of the arrival of 65,000 minors on our southern border.

At a town-hall meeting in April 2008 at the Dunmore Community Center, I asked then-Sen. Barack Obama about border security and the illegals in the country. His reply was to secure the borders and the illegals must go to the back of the line and earn their way.

I have asked U.S. Rep Matt Cartwright, D-17, Moosic, for his position on border security and I have yet to get a reply.

I credit the tea party for speaking up on this issue. Everyone must be engaged on this subject. Secure the border.

WILLIAM TORBECK

DUNMORE

Incredible journey

Editor: Think about the logistics of the journey that children crossing the Texas border supposedly have made.

It seems like a heck of a long trip. The task is actually more daunting than can be imagined, well over 1,200 miles during the hottest time of the year through amazingly inhospitable territory.

I think the media and the president are pulling our leg. Just a thought.

Imagine you are a 3-to- 8-year-old child, on your own without adults. You are asked to walk from Houston, Texas, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on your own with no food or belongings.

Then, you are asked to walk an additional 100 miles past Minneapolis.

How does a little kid even know in which direction to walk without at least some kind of guide?

Could you do it? How long would it take you as a 6-year- old?

That is the minimum distance these poor, helpless little ones supposedly have walked from Central America to the border of Texas.

They survived the journey without help, unless you buy in to the notion that a destitute out-of-work family run out of their homes by gangs and living in squalor somehow came up with $8,000 to $10,000 for each child to pay a coyote to take them to the border. How many days would it take for a 6-year-old to walk 1,220 miles without help, directions, food, sun protection and other supplies?

I don’t think the truth is being given to us, folks.

JEFF LEWIS

SCRANTON

Boyish boycott

Editor: As a Scranton resident, I am sick and tired of hearing the yokels from out of town complain about the commuter tax. If commuters want something to boycott, why not boycott their employers and quit their jobs?

Or better yet, how about if Scranton employers boycott commuters by firing them? That could create a win-win situation. It will create more jobs for the overtaxed citizens of Scranton and the churlish commuters will get their wish of not having to pay the commuter tax.

THOMAS M. FLAHERTY

SCRANTON

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